Has one genre ever made you change your opinion of another? Commenter File2ish explains how Namco's Tales of Symphonia made him a fighting game fan in today's Speak Up on Kotaku.

What game genre did you not like when you first played it, but you now like (after an extended period of time of not playing it)? For me it was fighting games. Soul Calibur, Street Fighter, and the like.

I think what got me into the genre was the battle system in the "Tales of" series, specifically Tales of Symphonia. I played the crap out of it, beat it at -least- 13 times over the past 9 or 10 years. Everything about the game was great in my opinion (well aside from some of the voice acting), and the battle system is one of the things that kept bringing me back to the game.

Now the first fighting game I actually got into was Soul Calibur 2, which I didn't like at first because my older brother would always beat my ass with Nightmare (I used Kilik and Cassandra at the time). I hated losing to him so much that I just hated the genre. Fast forward to after my 3rd or 4th Tales of Symphonia play through, I popped Soul Calibur 2 in for kicks and really got into SC2. In fact, I almost surpassed my brother at the game, we were pretty much equally matched. I still remember when our friend's older brother learned we played the game and challenged us (on Xbox, we have the GameCube one so he had the advantage). He considered himself pretty great at the game with Mitsirugi, since he was on par with his friend. My brother stomped his ass twice using Nightmare, and he also beat the friend without losing. I didn't even get to fight him since he got so mad that they lost (in addition to my brother and friend saying I was just as good as my brother, but with Cassandra).

After I was done with SC2 I didn't play fighting games for years, until I got a PSP. Dissidia Final Fantasy (as well as Duodecim now) and Soul Calibur Broken Destiny are probably my 2 most played PSP games. While Dissidia isn't a traditional fighter, I played the damn game nonstop. I perfected Jecht and got great with Tidus, Terra, Shantotto, and Cloud. As for SC I still main Cassandra (with a side of Cervantes).

Now I'm really into Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition, which I can't stop playing... Getting up there with Ibuki and Cammy, can't seem to win online with Chun Li, Juri, and Sakura anymore.

Now I really want SoulCalibur V and Street Fighter X Tekken ... But I won't get them just yet... Mass Effect 3 comes first =p Hopefully the SCV community doesn't die quickly.

About Speak Up on Kotaku: Our readers have a lot to say, and sometimes what they have to say has nothing to do with the stories we run. That's why we have a forum on Kotaku called Speak Up. That's the place to post anecdotes, photos, game tips and hints, and anything you want to share with Kotaku at large. Every weekday we'll pull one of the best Speak Up posts we can find and highlight it here.